An interesting review, always good to see with a fresh pair of eyes. Of course the points that we need to address will need more testers and more developers - as ever. But it is encouraging and for the most part very positive. It is also good to see a review that deals with "technical" issues rather than fluf like desktop colours etc...

A summation of the things I've read in her review, that needed some more work to be 'The Best Distro Out There'

Here we go:

The installer- Needs more to be configured by install (languages: spellchecking & systemlanguage, ... )- XFS can only be installed on the ROOT partition

Code:

Strangely the installer only supports xfs on the root partition, not anywhere else.

- Basic sanity checking

Code:

If you try to install your root filesystem into a partition that’s too small the installer will merrily go ahead until it fills the available space and then it starts spitting out errors, eventually crashing. The amount of space the installer claims it needs (about 1.6MB for a base install with X) is actually inadequate. The real number, which is correctly stated in the documentation, is 1.8MB.

- Only ext2 & ext3 are supported by Lilo (maybe GRUB as there is much request for).

Code:

Vector Linux still uses lilo and only lilo for the bootloader. Poor old lilo can only read ext2 and ext3 partitions. So, if you format your root partition with reiserfs or xfs and try to install lilo on your MBR it will fail.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about my review. Installation of lilo with xfs as the root partition did fail on both machines where I tried it with 5.8. (I do test things for a few weeks before opening my big mouth I haven't tried reiserfs. I will and will amend the review accordingly. Carla will also have to update her Linux Cookbook

Joel, I did respond to you on the O'Reilly site. The issue of internationalization (more language support) can be fixed with packages in the repository and options in vasm and the installer. Localization requires additional translation files for Xfce4 and a GUI tool for language selection (could be part of vasm). Selection of language at login could be achieved by moving to either a full version of kdm or else gdm. gdm is a bit less resource intensive, Please note that Vector, like any distro, can be internationalized or localized by any experienced user. The point is to make it easy for newcomers.

If you want packages made for Hebrew fonts, aspell-he and hspell, xfrun to allow the Hebrew Gnome applets (hspell and hdate) to work in Xfce4, hdate-applet, hocr, and yudit I will be glad to volunteer to do it as I have time. I'd also be willing to package aspell-fr. Hebrew and French are the two other languages I can manage. (OK, Yiddish too, but demand for that is probably near zero.)

I haven't looked at the installer code so I don't know which itty bitty shell you have up during the installer (if any), but if df is supported it shouldn't be hard to parse the output to check free disk space. I don't know what to suggest about X hardware detection. All I can say if that every other distro I've tried gets my laptops right on the first go and Vector doesn't. (I haven't tried Slackware 11, BTW.)

Do people really write reviews complaining about icons and desktop colors? Those things are always customizable. Good grief!

Anyway, yes, y'all did a really nice job with 5.8. I've run every version since 1.8 and even plunked down a few shekels to support development on a couple of occasions (VL 2.5 and 3.2, I think.) Finances are tight right now or I'd have an order in for 5.8 Deluxe.

Speaking for the devs, thanks very much for the constructive feedback. :-) Since the 5.8 standard base will be used for cooking up our 5.8 SOHO (we plan to have the first beta sometime in the next two weeks), we want to try to fix some of the things you mentioned in your post. It may be a stretch to add internationalization in the installer right away; however, one of our devs is at work on a new VASM that will support internationalization better than we do right now.

And yes, I didn't forget about the Hebrew support for KDE... we'll gladly take any packages for Hebrew fonts, huspell, etc., you want to make. ;-) Once you have something ready, send me a private message via the forum, and I'll get you the information you need for accessing our upload space.

I don't know what to suggest about X hardware detection. All I can say if that every other distro I've tried gets my laptops right on the first go and Vector doesn't. (I haven't tried Slackware 11, BTW.)

We'll need to work on that then. However, I've been lucky with X autoconfig. I normally choose the last resolution option on the installer, which says something like X will figure it out. It has correctly set up a Toshiba widescreen with 1280 x 800 Intel 900G and an HP with 1440 x 900 RADEON X600 (no DRI of course, needed the ATI drivers for that).

I've updated the review text to more accurately describe the situation with lilo. In other words I've confirmed that lilo is supposed to support both reiserfs and xfs. I did have a problem installing lilo to the mbr when I had xfs as my root partition and I described that rather than a general lilo issue.

I still think adding grub as a bootloader option is a good idea. It is far more flexible and more robust than lilo. Even mini distros like Damn Small Linux give a choice of grub or lilo. Just my .02...

Vector 5.8 is on cover DVD of the latest issue of Linux Magazine in the UK. Not much of a write up:" Vector Linux 5.8 - Another Slackware-based Linux with good hardware detection and easy package management".

Well...Looks like you boys (and girls Cait...) are moving uptown as it were. LOL. If anyone deserves it, the developers and loyal users of VectorLinux do. Listen, Susan may or may not have responded to my blog via her review, but let me tell you...srlinuxx is not ALL sweetness and light. If your distro blows, she will puree the sucker with her review. I think she is one of the most thorough reviewers if not THE most thorough reviewer in the bid'ness. She meant every word she said in praise. And btw...I have an older Acer Laptop that gave me hauntingly similar problems.

Tens of thousands of people read her stuff because they have come to trust her over the years. so watch your download stats and forum memberships grow. And oh...yes...Susan was Brutally serious about the Xorg update...

As one of the dev team, I want to thank you for your feedback about Susan's review. From discussions that Vector and the other devs have had, we're planning on forking some more from Papa Slack for VL 6.0. Among the moves we want to make are to move to gcc-4.x and to xorg 7.2 (or whatever version will be the latest stable at the time that we are in active development of VL 6).

One of the things that has held us back from gcc-4.x was the fact that too many things wouldn't build under it without patching source code. However, I think that enough of the major stuff compiles cleanly with gcc-4.x, so that shouldn't be an issue.